And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
Ver. 9. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch.] Like the lake of Sodom, which is near to Idumea, and whereof Josephus a writes, that an ox, having all his legs bound, will not sink into it, the water is so thick and pitchy. Strabo, though a stranger to this prophecy, attesteth the accomplishment of it. Lyra saith that in some part of Idumea there is still ascending a smoke of fire and brimstone, as out of Mount Etna in Sicily. b And Hyperius thinketh that the Edomites are here further threatened with hell torments. It should seem so by the next words.
a Alludit ad vicinam et situ et scelare et clade Sodomam - Lib. v. De Bell. Jud.
b Geog., lib. xvi.